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Keith and I are picking up to move to Pécs, Hungary for one year. He has never been to Europe and the furthest east I've been is Switzerland.... Our Hungarian language skills are...well, we know some phrases. Come follow us on our adventure!!

Tuesday, July 20, 2010

The Injury

The orthopedic in charge of my release is also a cyclist and has friends who have been injured on the same set of tracks. He sent me a list of people to email and a form letter in regards to getting the tracks fixed. PLEASE (even if you don't live in the area)send the political leaders of New Haven and CT your own email or you can use this email.

Everyone of us travels over those dicey Rail Road Tracks down onForbes Ave .And everyone one of us knowssomeone who has crashed there and or have crashed there ourselves.

Below is a letter sent by Bill Kurtz.

Thanks for your time !!

_______________________________________________To Whom is may Concern:

By now I know you have been made abundantly aware of the treacherousconditions caused by your angled railroad crossing on the TomlinsonBridge in New Haven, Connecticut.

I know that you have been made aware that this street (also known asRoute 1, or Forbes Avenue) is the main connection for pedestrians,cyclists, and other non-highway traffic between downtown New Haven andpoints west to the eastern shoreline of Connecticut.

You have received a number of suggestions for engineering solutions tothis problem. These solutions include the use of flange fillers. Ialso know that your many objections to these engineering solutionshave either been discredited (flange fillers are unsuitable for use incold weather) or downright ridiculous to any thinking person (it wouldbe too expensive to re-install them at the end of a billion+ dollarbridge renovation).

I won't rehash the various details here; the salient points aboutengineering solutions have been raised by people who are better versedin their intricacies than I am.

I know you have been made aware of the many serious crashes that havetaken place at your railroad crossing, and that you have so far failedto take any meaningful action about this treacherous situation,despite more-than-adequate knowledge of the hazard you have createdand allowed to exist.

Just two weeks ago, there was yet another crash there and yet anotherexperienced cyclist was seriously injured and now we are told thataccording to Russ St. John, who is P&W's representative on theConnecticut Public Transportation Commission that a"cyclists-dismount-and-walk" sign is the solution that is "acceptable"to Providence and Worcester. Please hear me clearly when I state thatyour sign is not an acceptable solution to the many residents ofgreater New Haven who cycle across that bridge regularly. For onething, there is nowhere to dismount. The west-bound side is currentlyreduced to one lane because of the Q-Bridge construction. There isneither a sidewalk nor a shoulder and traffic on that stretchregularly reaches and exceeds 50 mph. It should be clear why anyso-called "solution" which calls for a streets user with all therights of any other vehicle operator to stop moving in the middle of50 mph traffic is unacceptable.

In light of the facts outlined above, I only have one question for theofficials of the Providence and Worcester Railroad: what the hell iswrong with you people?

I eagerly await your reply outlining your rationale for this cleardisregard for human life and safety.

Sincerely,

William V. Kurtzwww.thedevilsgear.com (drafter of email)

_________________________________________________

My doctor also sent me this note yesterday:

Hey megan,I wrote "the governator" and she (her office) got back to me regardingyour injury.Probably a generic reply but i just wanted to let you know that i letthem know that we need to get thosetracks fixed! Don't know if it makes much difference but if enoughpeople talk loud enough stuff will get done.The reply is below.